Beginner's Guide
While a big reason for creating music with iOS Devices is their ease of use, it can still seem daunting to those unfamiliar with the process. This guide is intended to help those completely unfamiliar with the process of producing music as well as those who have basic production knowledge but simply need help getting started on their iOS device. __TOC__ Producing 101 Producing in the realm of iOS music is an all-encompassing term that can refer to any or every part of the production of music, including performing, recording, editing and mixing. Depending on your goals and abilities, you can perform any or all of these functions on your iOS device. The following is a list of some of the production tasks you can accomplish on the iPad *Play traditional "real world" instruments and capture the performance using an audio interface into a recording app on your iOS device *Play virtual instruments directly on the iOS device, either using the touchscreen or accelerometer, or via external controllers. *Edit the audio or MIDI data of your recorded performances in a variety of editing apps or in a DAW *Adjust your final audio mix in a dedicated mixing app or in a DAW *Sample real-world audio and manipulate existing samples, loops and patches *Add and manipulate effects such as filtering, compression, reverb, and chorus to recordings & samples *Perform beatmaking, including recording, beat-slicing, time-stretching, etc *Work with multi-track editors to mix, arrange and compose entire songs *Export mixdowns and indivual track versions of songs for sharing or editing in other environments Terms explained: DAW vs Synth vs Sampler vs Controller? One of the biggest hurdles to new electronic musicians is in terminology and knowing what app to use for what purpose. It is important to keep in mind these definitions can be very fluid and dynamic. Whereas in the physical world of music performance, it is easy to tell the difference between a guitar, a piano, a drumset and a tape recorder, in the world of electronic music production, many tools can accomplish the same task in a different way. It is important, however, to know what the basic definitions are for the key components in music production. *'DAW '- A Digital Audio Workstation is essentially a recording studio in a box. Most DAWs include most or all tools you will need to capture, create, edit and mix a performance. DAWs are comprised of other components, such as synthesizers, sequencers, audio editors, MIDI editors, samplers, and mixers. DAWs are very convienent because they are one-stop-shops for musical production, but their do-everything approach often comes at the expense of quality or depth to specific components. For instance, many DAWs include a synthesizer, which is convenient, but will likely not be of comparable quality or progammability as a standalone synthesizer app. Examples of iOS DAWs include Cubasis, GarageBand, Auria, Meteor, and BeatMaker 2. *'Synthesizer '- An electronic musical instrument that can be programmed to acheive a specific sound. Synthesizers typically have (but are not required to have) a piano-style keyboard for note input, and offer a huge array of sound customization through oscillators, filters, amplifiers, arpeggiators, and more. The synthesizer is a sound-generating tool, and is the key component of the creation process for strictly electronic music. Depending on how it is programmed, it can create an infinite variety of sounds, from lush pads to searing leads to emulations of real-world instruments and drum beats. Many synthesizer apps include other features, such as sequencing, sampling, effects and recording capabilities, but these are not strictly part of a synthesizer. Examples of iOS synthesizers include Thor, Magellan, Animoog, Sunrizer and Cassini. *'Sampler - '''A sampler is an electronic musical instrument that plays back pre-recorded sounds called '''samples, loops, '''or '''patches'. Unlike a synthesizer, which actually generates a soundwave and modifies it to acheive a certain sound, a sampler simply plays back a recorded or pre-loaded sound. That sound can then be further modified and sequenced to acheive the desired effect. Samplers are popular for the creation of beats, where a recorded drum loop is "sliced" to individual pad controls which can be played in real time as a live performance. Samplers can take the form of a drum machine with pads or a keyboard, where sampled sounds are mapped according to the musical scale. Samplers have a loose definition in the iOS envirnment, where some sampler apps perform the actual recording and playing of samples and others mainly load and manipulate existing samples. Examples of iOS samplers (with various capabilities) include Sir Sampleton, Samplr, SampleWiz, and SampleTank. Note that since sampling is strongly tied to other production components, perhaps the best "classic" sampler implementation is in full-fledged DAWs such as BeatMaker 2. *'Sequencer '- A tool that can arrange audio elements, such as audio data (waveforms) or MIDI data. This is the visual interface to how your song (or some element of audio) is arranged, layed out and ordered. A sequencer could take the shape of a piano roll, where a MIDI performance is displayed in a single "overhead" view, to step sequencers where notes are programmed one at a time, to a linear track-based view of each instrument and audio track. The sequencer is the tools that ties all the other components (instruments and controllers) together to arrange a recorded piece. Sequencers are often integrated into other apps such as drum machines, synthesizers and samplers in order to record, play back and arrange the instrument's sounds, or as part of a complete DAW. However, examples of standalone sequencers include Genome, StepPolyArp, Little MIDI Machine, and Thesys. *'Controller' - A tool to control or "play" input. A controller can be hardware or software-based, and can interact with other tools such as synthesizers or samplers to control which notes are being played or sounds & effects are being modulated. A common controller is a simple electronic keyboard, which can interface with an iOS Devica via MIDI controller, or directly via USB/dock connector. In this case the keyboard sends MIDI control data to some app, telling it which note to play or parameter to adjust. Controllers exist for everything from electronic guitars to wind instruments to virtual controllers that can detect motion or touchscreen input to allow for expressive control of another app. Examples of hardware controllers include the Akai MPK Mini, the Yamaha WX5, and the JamStik. Examples of software controllers include MIDI Studio, Chordion, PolyChord and SoundPrism. *'Drum Machine' - A tool designed to create and control drumbeats. Many drum machines are basically samplers that are optimized or pre-loaded with drum kit presets. Typically a drum machine will feature pads for live performance of beats and a step sequencer for pre-arranging and fine-tuning of complex beats. Many drum machines include effects and sample manipulation features specific for drum performance. Examples of drum machine apps include DM1, S4 Ryhthm Composer, FunkBox, DrumJam, Impaktor, and BeatPad. Choosing an iOS Device Essential Apps Connecting Real-World Instruments Sharing your Work